Editorial: Feedback

You gave us an earful on our editorial last week on Montgomery's Judicial Building renovation.

John Yuhas emailed:

"Don't you think you might have mentioned that the RSA owns Raycom which owns WSFA? I am all for growth and expansion in Montgomery... However, the artist renderings of what downtown will look like with the expanded Judicial building are a bit uninspiring. How would the RSA feel if "Chuck E. Cheese or an Adult themed store built a complex directly in front of the RSA Tower? How about the biggest water park in Alabama across from the RSA fountain? Can't there be a way to scale back the design or are we just to accept that the RSA's money talks louder than our citizens?"

Craig Baab e-mailed:

"The issues include whether the building's interior and exterior benefit Dexter Avenue's historical past and commercial future, the view of the Capitol Building as integral to the central downtown and whether what is proposed is a net beneficial..."

And Chad Emerson emailed:

"After 5pm, our downtown is basically bereft of "life"... Compare Montgomery's downtown to our sister cities like Savannah, Charleston, Greenville and Chattanooga and it becomes immediately clear that they have far exceeded Montgomery's city center in almost every respect. A sad conclusion considering the great history of this city. Ultimately, at some point, the citizens and the media (including RSA) need to begin asking the tough question: Why hasn't these large RSA expenditures not only failed to improve the downtown Montgomery as a whole, but, in fact, have witnessed the city center's further decline during this same time period? There is absolutely no quantifiable reason to anticipate that yet another large RSA office tower will reverse this well-established trend."